I'm re-starting my sourdough addicti--I mean starter (nudges housewolf).

[Shakespeare]

Several periods of sourdough enthusiasm have cycled through the C&B forum over the years, but I notice everybody seems to be more taken lately with the 5-minute artisan breads and/or NYT bread.

Those are fine and lovely and tasty, but I've really missed maintaining my sourdough starter. The last time I did, I was living in the SF bay area, and baked a few loaves every weekend (there are threads buried somewhere in the archives where several of us did this). Well, Gordon has been asking me to give it another go, so I mixed up the flour and water mixture for a starter last night. Since I'm also looking for an excuse to work on my low light/closeup photography skills, I'm going to try to document the progress of the starter, and I'll post it here. Maybe it'll inspire some of you to get back on the sourdough bandwagon, too!

And for those of you not already familiar with housewolf's excellent and exhaustively thorough website on sourdough, here's the link:

http://www.angelfire.com/ab/bethsbread/FrontPage.html

[Lucinda]

1. Thats very cool! I look forward to your updates.

I was researching sourdough starters and capturing wild yeast last night. I need to look for sourdough threads in the archives here.

[spinbaby]

2. It's been years since I kept a sourdough starter

Just don't have time for it nowadays. I used to make a mean sourdough biscuit.

[NashVegas]

3. My Starter Is 1/2 Filled w/Hooch

It's been at least 4 months since I've gone near it.

[housewolf]

12. It's not too late...

But I'll bet it;s REALLY hungry! I can hear it calling out to you... FEED ME! FEED ME!

FEED ME!

[Blues Heron]

4. I just tried to restart some frozen starter from last april - I think it's given up the ghost

nothing yet after 48 hours

It was carl's (friends of carl's)

good luck with your starter! look forward to the pics!

[housewolf]

9. Have you dumped it yet? If not, we still might be able to revive it...

But it will probablly take some work.

If you haven't dumped it all, move about an ounce to a new container with a lid, add 2 oz flour (about 1/2 cup) and 6 oz water (3/4) cup. Put your original starter back in the refrigerator. Put the new one, covered, in a very warm place... I'm talkin' 85 - 90 degrees or so, and leave it for 8 hrs or so. Then whether you see any activity yet or not, add another 2 oz of flour and 6 oz of water, put it back in its warm place. Check it again after another 8 hrs or so. Again, whether you see any activity or not, repeat with the flour & water and let it sit another 8 hrs or so. Chances are you'll see at least some bubbling. If so, we can move on to recovery-stage 2.

If you don't see any activity, there's another method we can try using some more of the reserve starter you put back in your refrigerator. Let me know, and we'll take it from there.

Sourdough critters are really pretty hardy folk, more so than you might think.

[Blues Heron]

13. Thanks - I'll try this today - haven't dumped it yet!

[housewolf]

19. Great! Good luck with it!

Feel free to pm me if you have questions, I'll be glad to try to help you work it out.

[Shakespeare]

5. After 24 hours--far more activity than I expected.

My starter mix is 1 cup flour, 1 cup spring water, and 1 teaspoon honey. You don't need any additional sugar to capture wild yeasts, but I was curious what would happen if I included a tiny amount of honey: a bit of a jumpstart, from first appearances, but we'll see how it does as the next few days go by.

[Lucinda]

6. Did you use rye or wheat to start?

Very cool that you have activity already! :)

[Shakespeare]

7. Not this time--just white flour.

I've used rye flour in the past, though. Just didn't have any easily accessible when I mixed up the starter.

[Lucinda]

8. Thanks! I'm a sourdough newbie, so info from those who have worked with it

is priceless! :)

[hippywife]

23. I've never done it before, either, because

it seems like a lot of trouble. But this seems to be very instructive and should be pretty easy:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/233

Actually, that whole site might be a bit much for you, Lucinda. It can definitely feed an already well established bread baking addiction. ;)

[housewolf]

11. Lookin' good!

You're on your way to a new starter! I feel proud for you... they're kind of like children to me, or pets, it's exciting to watch one grow. Congrats to you, Shakeskpeare!!!

:applause: :applause: :applause:

[Shakespeare]

15. It's doubled in size this morning. On day 2.

Honestly--it's kind of freaking me out. :rofl:

It has a slight soured milk smell; not altogether unpleasant, but not the familiar sourdough smell yet. I assume the teaspoon of honey is responsible for the early activity, because this never happened this fast with my other starters. I added the honey on a whim, and I'm not sure that was a good idea. But hey, it's active, so I'll hope it's a good thing.

:hi:

[housewolf]

18. The question is... what microbes did the honey stimulate? The good sourdough microbes or some othes

Because not everything that bubbles will make a good sourdough bread...

Nonetheless, it's a new starter, only a couple days old, and it takes a little time for the good yeast and lactobacilli to stabailize and get rid of their competition, the undesirable stuff. Don't be surprised if some of the heavy frothing drops off for a time while the yeast and lactobacilli build themselves up and make themselves at home in the starter, then the bubbling will strengthen again. Give it some time to come into its own and you'll be rewarded when you first bake with it.

[Shakespeare]

20. That's what I'm wondering (and why I find it freaky).

I plan to give it 7-10 days to really develop, so I'm ready to just sit back and see what the heck it does for the next week. It's like a science project, but one that will hopefully yield a nice crusty bread at the end. :7

[housewolf]

22. You're on the right track ...

Your keys are time and temperature. Feel free to pm me any time if you have questions or if I don't get back to you quickly enough here. Have fun with your experiments, you'll learn something each time. Happy sourdoughing!

[Blues Heron]

14. Nice! that looks really active!

[housewolf]

10. Thanks for posting the link!

The site hasn't been updated for longer than I care to admit, but I'm glad to know that it's still useful. I had such a great time with the site and sourdough those days!

I've been toying with the idea of starting up a new starter myself... maybe you've given me just the inspiration I need!

Hooray for you, Shakeskpeare! I can't wait to watch your progress!

[Shakespeare]

16. Hey, it's a great link.

It's the most detailed link I can find anywhere that talks in depth about maintaining a starter. :thumbsup:

[Shakespeare]

17. End of day 2 - it's like the aftermath of a frat party, inside a quart jar...

I'm still very surprised by this instantly active starter (all from just one little teaspoon of honey? really?). After I fed it last night, I took a look at it before going to bed a few hours later, and it had doubled in size, and was riotously bubbly. By tonight, back to collapse and separation. The smell has gone from sour milk-y to somewhere between sharp cheese-y/stinky feet-y. It seems to be developing towards the more familiar sour smell of a sourdough starter.

[Inchworm]

21. Keep up the info

My daughter is giving me some starter Sunday. I cannot recall ever baking bread unless it was under tomato sauce and cheese, so all this stuff is being absorbed :)

Thanks.

:hi:

[Shakespeare]

24. Day 3, and everybody's calmed down.

No more insanely active starter--back to what I expect for a three-day-old starter. Noticeable cheesy smell.

[Lucinda]

25. Bookmarking and giving you a little bump

:hi:

[Inchworm]

26. The day has come - I have a jar of stinky slurry

:D

Evidently this is potato flake starter that was born in 1989. I have been reading up on sourdough starter and always skipped the potato flake parts because it seemed weird. Now I know.

The starter is totally fluid. When I see starter used on videos and such it seemed to have a consistency thicker than what I have. Do you know if that is because it is potato flake starter and not "flour" starter?

I'll play with it tomorrow. I just got home and must read more :D

:hi:

[Lucinda]

28. It's all new to me, but I am watching your progress!

:hi:

[Shakespeare]

27. Day 4, and all is quiet on the starter front.

Not much activity today. Stirred, dumped half & fed. On to day 5...

[Lucinda]

29. Just a little bump...

[Shakespeare]

30. My starter was overcome with ennui, so I staged an intervention last night.

For those of you who've done this before, you know (as do I) that you have much greater success if you start out with rye flour (instead of white flour) to catch the wild yeast beasties.

Well, I had none on hand when I started it, and thought surely, surely some yeast would make itself at home in my free lodging of white flour and water.

Alas.

It finally evolved the familiar sourdough smell, but there was no riotous bubbling, just a few feeble bubbles each night--and "few" may be an overstatement--and then collapse and separation (and that's why I ceased posting daily pictures, because it looked exactly the same, every single sad day).

And that, my C&B friends, is no way to bake bread, unless you really, really love the taste and texture of sawdust compressed into bricks.

So I stopped at Whole Paycheck on my way home last night, paid way too much for a small bag of organic rye flour, and re-started my starter, adding 4-5 tablespoons of my lethargic starter to the new rye mix.

I will update as things develop.

[Lucinda]

31. I'm glad you're getting going again.

:hi: I've been reading your op link, and I'm just about ready to start one myself!

[housewolf]

32. Some rye flour should give it a good kick

Should get things moving again. If not within a couple days, you might need to start over with a new mix.

[Shakespeare]

33. It seems to be perking up, 24 hours later.

A few bubbles, good sour smell, and just eyeballing it, the consistency is changing (in the right direction).

I only put a tiny bit of the old starter in (because it did have some good stuff going on, just not enough), so hopefully it'll be okay.

:hi: